How to plan delivery routes (from a spreadsheet to the driver's phone)

A delivery spreadsheet needs one row per delivery, with a name and a complete address. That's all a route planner needs to put the stop on a map. Order numbers, phone numbers and notes can stay in the sheet.

If the street, city and ZIP sit in separate columns, you don't need to merge them for EZRoutePlanner: its import finds those columns itself. For Google Maps or anything else, the address list cleaner joins them into one line per stop and removes duplicates.

Google Maps plans a delivery route of up to 10 places: your start plus 9 stops, counting the last one. It drives them in the order you enter them and never reorders them, so you work out the order yourself before you type it in.

1. 1

   Sort the sheet by area

   Sort the rows by ZIP code, then by street, so nearby deliveries sit together.

2. 2

   Enter the depot and the stops

   In Google Maps on a computer, choose Directions, enter the depot, then click + Add destination for each stop, copying the addresses from the sheet.

3. 3

   Drag the stops into a loop

   Drag stops by their handles until the route sweeps around the area without doubling back.

4. 4

   Send it to the phone

   Use Send directions to your phone, or share the link and open it in the Google Maps app. Opened in a phone's web browser, the link keeps only 3 stops between the start and the end.

Google My Maps, the other free Google option, imports a spreadsheet of up to 2,000 rows and pins every address. It doesn't put them in driving order, so you're back to building 10-place routes by hand. More in how to import addresses into Google Maps.

You import the whole sheet into a route planner, check the pins, then make and optimize a route for each driver or run. Here's the flow in EZRoutePlanner, where the free plan covers routes of up to 30 stops.

1. 1

   Import the file

   Sign up free, then drop in the CSV or Excel file (up to 20 MB). AI finds the address columns, even when street, city and ZIP are split, and you pick one column, such as the customer name, as each stop's label.

2. 2

   Fix the flagged rows

   Every row is looked up and shown on a review map, with uncertain matches listed at the top to correct first. Repeated rows and addresses you've already saved are skipped.

3. 3

   Set the depot

   Save your depot, shop or kitchen as a base so every route can start from it. Turn on Round Trip if the driver comes back at the end of the run.

4. 4

   Make a route and optimize it

   Select the run's stops on the map, or draw a lasso around an area, and create a route. Press Optimize Route: the stops go into the shortest order it can find, with the start kept in place and every leg's distance shown.

The order matters more than most people expect. Across our 48 example routes of 7–12 stops on real roads in 24 cities, stops left in the order they were listed drove a median 65% farther than the same stops optimized. A list sorted by order number or customer name is close to random on a map.

Organize delivery routes by area first: give each driver one compact part of the map, then put that area's stops in order. Splitting by area keeps drivers out of each other's streets, so every route stays short.

• By area or ZIP code. The default for most small delivery businesses. Neighboring ZIP codes make an easy first cut.
• By day. If an order can go out any day this week, put each neighborhood on one day instead of spreading it across five.
• By vehicle. Bulky orders go in the van, small parcels in the car. Split those first, then by area within each vehicle.
• By run. A morning and an afternoon run from the same depot are two routes, each optimized on its own.

Most delivery drivers follow a list of stops in order and open each one in their navigation app as they go. Three ways to give them that:

• A shared route link. Each EZRoutePlanner route has a link and a QR code. The driver opens it in the phone's browser with no app and no login, sees the stops in order, and taps Navigate for Google Maps, Apple Maps or Waze. Edit the route and the page shows the change; revoke the link when the run is done.
• Google Maps links. The export splits a long route into links of 10 stops that chain together. Tell drivers to open them in the Google Maps app, not the browser.
• A printed route sheet. The PDF lists every stop with the distance of each leg, plus optional turn-by-turn directions. Good for areas with patchy signal.

You can also export a route to CSV or Excel with stop numbers, labels, addresses and Google Maps links, which makes it easy to match the run back to your orders. More in how to send a route to a driver's phone.

A simple route planner puts stops in a short driving order; it doesn't run the rest of a delivery operation. EZRoutePlanner, for example, has no delivery time windows, no proof of delivery (photos or signatures), no GPS tracking, no customer text alerts or ETAs, and no vehicle capacity. It orders stops by distance, not live traffic.

• Time windows. For a stop that must happen by 10 a.m., optimize the route, then move that stop up the order, or start the route near it.
• Notes and gate codes. Imports keep the address and one label column. Put the most important note in the label (Alvarez, side door) and keep the rest in a sheet the driver can see.
• Proof of delivery. Use the phone's camera, or a printed route sheet with a column to tick.
• Capacity. If the van fills up before the run ends, split the stops into two runs before you optimize.

Dozens of vehicles with tight windows every day need dispatch software built for that. For a few drivers and a spreadsheet, the steps above plan each day in minutes. For an example day planned this way, see the pages for couriers, florists, meal prep and bakery businesses and furniture delivery teams.